BBC Trust

Today, the BBC Trust is publishing its final assessment of the BBC’s performance during 2016/17 (Welsh version) for the period to December 31 2016.

We are also publishing the reports by the Audience Councils in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland (Gaelic version) and Wales (Welsh version); and the findings of the Purpose Remit Survey for Autumn 2016.

The Trust will close on Sunday April 2.

It will be for the new BBC Board to produce the next BBC Annual Report, once a full set of audited data is available.

Rona Fairhead, Chairman of the BBC Trust, said:

"The Trust's priority in 2016/17 was to ensure that the voice of the BBC's audiences was heard loud and clear in the Charter negotiations. We believe that the new Charter should deliver what they want - a BBC that is able to be confident, innovative, distinctive and creatively ambitious.

No one should underestimate the challenges that the organisation faces in the next few years – to find the necessary cost savings; to maintain its relevance with all sections of society and to invest in digital and personalised content while also sustaining the traditional services that the public love.

The BBC’s performance in 2016 gives us considerable confidence in its capacity to meet those future challenges, and 95% of adults use the BBC’s television, radio or online services each week – an extraordinary achievement in a world where choice has proliferated enormously over the past two decades.

It has been a privilege to chair the BBC Trust and to work with Tony Hall and his team at the BBC. I wish Sir David Clementi and his new Board continued success.”